0960-0526 GC - SAVE Focus Group Description

DOCUMENTATION FOR THE GENERIC CLEARANCE

OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEYS

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Service Directory Application User Preferences Development Discussions

SSA SUB-NUMBER: D-03

DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITY:

Background:

In April 2009, President Obama announced the SAVE award initiative inviting Federal employees nationwide to submit suggestions to the White House on ways Federal agencies could save money. An SSA employee from Alabama, Christie Dickson, was one of the finalists for the President’s SAVE Award. Ms. Dixon’s suggestion was to increase efficiency by adding an appointment-scheduling tool to the agency website so that members of the public can schedule appointments online.

In December, the White House Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra, charged SSA with implementing a more comprehensive version of Ms. Dickson’s suggestion focusing on online service delivery. The following is an excerpt from that charge:

“I am asking the agency to develop an online process that will guide the user through a series of questions, soliciting the necessary information only once, and directing the person to the most appropriate service delivery method for his or her situation. That could be a telephone call of an online response. But if the agency determines that your inquiry requires an appointment with a field office, you will be able to schedule that appointment online. I have asked the Social Security Administration to provide a detailed plan for this citizen-centric online process within 90 days and to deliver on this promise by the end of 2010.”

Additionally, OMB issued a memorandum on December 21, 2009, requiring all agencies to submit a written plan for implementing two initiatives that expand citizens’ access to services through the Internet. The suggestion from Ms. Dickson will be the first of those required initiatives.

Before designing the online process mandated by the White House, we would like to conduct a series of conversations with the target audience – citizens and employee users. We are clearing these conversations in this generic clearance customer satisfaction survey submission. To meet the timeframe required by the White House and to fulfill the spirit of President Obama’s Open Government initiative, we will need to begin conducting these surveys as soon as possible.

Description:

SSA would like to conduct a series of discussions with members of the public and end users within the agency to obtain their feedback on our proposed service directory and electronic appointment scheduling processes. A description of the proposed discussions follows.

We plan to conduct a series of semi-structured focus groups, more aptly termed “discussions,” with members of the public and SSA employees. We will recruit participants by using a professional firm with focus group experience, and by identifying affected employees within the agency.

We will conduct these discussions in groups of no more than 20 members of the public or SSA employees at a time. Discussions will take place via conference call or in focus-group meeting rooms.

We anticipate conducting these meetings over a period of 6 months to 1 year, beginning as soon as OMB grants clearance. Meetings will focus on iterations of the web pages we are designing for directing the public to services and scheduling appointments.

Discussions of proposed web applications will include:

• User analysis of the website prototype;

• User evaluation of the design;

• User feedback on the clarity, relevance, and ease of completing information on the website;

• User analysis of website utilities and navigational ease; and,

• Analysis of user satisfaction with the site’s security and authentication protocols.

Attached please find a sample discussion guide for our proposed focus groups.

IF FOCUS GROUP MEMBERS WILL RECEIVE A PAYMENT, INDICATE AMOUNT:

We will not compensate respondents.

USE OF SURVEY RESULTS:

SSA will use the information we obtain during these discussions to map out and better understand the service directory and appointment scheduling business processes, and to determine the public’s satisfaction with our business process and proposed new electronic application prototypes.

BURDEN HOUR COMPUTATION (Number of responses (X) estimated response time

(/60) = annual burden hours):

400 citizens and employees total (no more than 20 at a time) x 60 minutes meeting time/60 = 60 hours

NAME OF CONTACT PERSON:

Faye Lipsky, 410-965-8783

MAJOR OFFICE, OFFICE, DIVISION, BRANCH:

Social Security Administration, DCBFM/OPLM

Service Directory Application Discussions (0960-0526) GC Description

3/17/2010

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